Michael Terren

Presenting

As a teenager growing up in Bunbury I took an affected sort of pride in my taste for music that almost all my friends hated. Nowadays I’m doing postgrad music composition and research at WAAPA. Since my uni life began I’ve been excavating the weirdest realms of computer music, musique concrète, noise, and anything contextually audacious. It can get pretty hairy at times—listener discretion is advised.

How did you become involved in the station?

Sam Gillies pitched me the gig during a Colin Stetson show… it’s become something of a tradition for WAAPA postgrads to get involved with the show, with Sam before me, and Kynan Tan and Philip Everall before that.

If stuck on Mars, what five albums could you not go without?

Probably wouldn’t be reaching for the kind of music I play on the show to be honest! If we’re on the “autophobia in desolate wasteland” tip, I might suggest:

Bernard Parmegiani – De natura sonorum

Richard Skelton – Landings

Grouper – Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill

Eliane Radigue – Trilogie de la Mort

Florian Hecker – Sun Pandämonium

What is the best thing about being involved in the station?

I’m always inspired and blown away by the multiplicity of niches and scenes in Perth, and how passionate the other RTRFM volunteers are in championing their niche and encouraging diversity, so being a part of that is really gratifying. To borrow a phrase I nicked from twitter: “the best thing about music is the best thing about the world: heterogeneity qua heterogeneity, possibility qua possibility”

What is the strangest thing that has happened to you at RTRFM?

Not a lot of strangeness on my end I’m afraid… perhaps the fact that I haven’t had any calls of complaint after 20 minutes of harsh noise walls is the strangest thing about my tenure so far?

If you could present a show other than your own, which would it be and why?

Some day I’ll orchestrate a coup d’état against Difficult Listening and join forces with Ambient Zone for a four-hour interstellar journey some Sunday night.

What do you do in real life?

Study takes up most of my life these days, but I freelance when I can: teaching, mixing, music tech consultancy, VJing. Also, running and reading superb/stupid Wikipedia articles.